Our colleague, human rights activist Tamara Karasteleva, needs help. Tamara was one of the leaders of Novorossiysk Committee for Human Rights (NCHR). At the moment, Tamara Karasteleva is in Tbilisi, Georgia, with acute leukemia. She is under chemotherapy and can barely talk. The Karastelevs need money to transport her to Moscow as soon as the doctors allow it. Moreover, she needs means to cover care. Patients aren’t provided with food in the Tbilisi hospital, they have to prepare food, as well as to buy special medicines. We do not have information on how long she has to be there.

On March 27-28th the Cinema club "Polytechnic", Youth Human Rights Group "System of Coordinates" with the support of the YHRM Initiative Group “Human Rights in Tibet” conducted a series of public events on the human rights situation in Tibet. The purpose of the meetings was to give information about the position of Tibetan people under the actual genocide and to conduct joint actions in support of them.

On March 27th a documentary “Tibet: Cry of the snow lion”, which tells about the actual state of the Tibetan-Chinese relations, the philosophy of nonviolence, and gives a look at the problem from the inside, was demonstrated.

On April 14, 2010, at 15.30, a Central Region Court of Gomel will hold another consideration of the criminal case upon Dzmitry Smyk who is accused of military service evasion.

Dzmitry Smyk belongs to a religious community “Jehovah’s Witnesses” and demands implementation of alternative civilian service because of his religious beliefs.

As a reminder, on November 6, 2009, Central Region Court of Gomel found Smyk guilty og evasion to the military service according to Art. 435 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. On December 9, 2009, Gomel Oblast Court having considered Smyk’s appeal left the sentence unchanged.

An analogous decision was issued by the Chair of Gomel Oblast Court on January 23, 2010.

12.04.2010, Ivan Serebro, soldier of the military unit 52500, submitted an appeal to the Ministry of Defense with a demand to let him a possibility to implement alternative service.

“I’ve heard of alternative service before, but only being at the military already I found out that the Law on Alternative Service is going to be drafted. I know that alternative service means, in the first place, hard work, and the term of such service is usually bigger than that of military service. However, I am going to insist on implementation of alternative service. I think this will be of a better use – both to the people, and to me personally” – Ivan Serebro commented upon his decision.

On April 8, 2010, Court of Soviet Region of Gomel discharged claims against Yauheni Yakavenka (25 y.o.) who was accused of failure to appear to draft activities to military service.

On April 5, 2010, a second hearing on “reconsideration” of Mikhailau’s case has taken place.

On March 9, 2010, a Panel of Judges of Minsk Oblast Court has considered a cassation appeal of Mikhailau against the sentence that was given to him by the Minsk Region Court and decided to submit the case for a repeated consideration. On March 10, 2010 Ivan Mikhailau who was convicted for his objection to military service out of religious beliefs, was released from the Zhodzina prison number 8 (Minsk region).

On March 19, 2010, information appeared that a criminal case has been initiated against Yauheni Yakavenka upon Art. 435 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (“evading activities on draft to the army”). On March, May 22, 2010 young man is called upon by the crime investigator of the Central Region Department of Interior Olga Shupikova, this time as a defendant (accused).

From March 14th to 19th the 2nd International Academy of Remembrance and Human Rights took place in Berlin (Germany). In the framework of the program “Teaching Human Rights” the organizer (the foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”) has gathered 23 participants from Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, the Ukraine, Israel and Germany.

In general, the Academy was devoted to human rights and historical education. The participants and experts faced a challenge: to understand how these areas can help and reinforce each other. One of the important similar tasks of historical and human rights education is promoting the values of humanity and human dignity, and developing critical and systemic thinking.

At the beginning of March a project of Student Embassy was launched. The pioneers were three Ukranian higher schools: National Aviation University (Kyiv), National University ‘Lviv Polytechnic’ (Lviv), Gorbachevsky Ternopil State Medical University (Ternopil).